The University of Michigan Child Health Research Career Development Award (CHRCDA) program entitled "Advancing Child Health through Cellular and Molecular Biology" is designed to support the academic career development of promising junior pediatric faculty. This program places particular emphasis on three areas of pediatric research- developmental biology, abnormal cellular growth and host defenses, thus taking advantage of established strengths of other programs and investigators throughout the University of Michigan. Specifically, this program is designed to support research training of junior pediatric physician-scientists in cellular and molecular biology, physiologic genomics, and translational research. The specific goals of this program are: (a) to provide junior pediatric physician-scientists with the functional infrastructure technologies to determine the underlying genetic and functional basis of diseases that impact broadly on children's health; (b) to provide a unique opportunity for junior pediatric physician-scientists to study gene function from interactions at the nuclear level through the entire structural spectrum (nuclear, cellular, tissue, organ and organism); (c) to provide junior pediatric physician-scientists with an opportunity to acquire new, innovative and state-of-the-art scientific research expertise in molecular and cellular biology, physiologic genomics, and translational research to bridge the gap between basic science research and clinical pediatric medicine; (d) to give junior pediatric physician-scientists opportunities to develop expertise in both genomic and proteomic technology using the Expression Analysis Core and to expose them to an Educational Core Curriculum considered necessary for the pursuit of a successful academic research career; and(e) to attract the most talented junior pediatric physician-scientists and to recruit, develop and train minority and women as independent investigators. To achieve this aim, we have recruited 29 senior faculty members from diverse departments and units throughout the Dept. of Pediatrics, the Medical School, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.